Many times when I’m talking to people about the future, and the direction that I see things moving, based on the patterns of growth in life, they start to doubt me, and start looking to tell me all the reasons why the future is only going to get worse. Competition is “normal”. Humans are inherently messed up. Life is purposeless. Physics doesn’t care. We’re destroying the planet. Etc.

And, ironically, I both want to reassure them that they are mistaken, and let them know that whatever they feel is what they should feel.

Any time anyone, including yourself, tries to make you believe that what you are feeling is not what you’re supposed to be feeling, whether that is rage, avoidance, depression, or joy, you can be assured that they are confused. Feelings are the body’s way of sending you a message about the state of things, so that you can make a more informed decision about what to do.

Ideally, we can allow our emotions to be fully heard and respected and expressed before we try to solve any intellectually complex problem. This way we allow ourselves to focus on the past first, and then the future, using the parts of our brain that are best suited for each of these things.

“I ball up the meanness and let it out in the art, and no one gets hurt” ~Artist Peter Deligdisch

We are given so many mixed messages about how to deal with emotions! Do X! Don’t do X!

I try to make the most of an hour to offer you a fairly concise and thorough, but simple and universal approach to expressing our emotions in a way that works well, and makes life easier for everyone, even when doing what we instinctively want to do hasn’t worked out so well in the past. I got into how we can respect and care for our bodies, and their natural, normal, generally healthy reactions to problems, fears, danger, threats, etc. while also doing as little harm to our environment and the individual animals, vegetables, minerals, etc. around us who we need to keep reasonably intact, if we are to be successful in growing and learning and making life better overall?

I go through the four basic instinctive reactions of fight/anger/aggression, flight/fear/avoidance, freeze/sadness/depression, flow/happiness/joy and how we can put a little effort into moving from the most destructive, and least effective, way of expressing our emotions, to the most creative and effective way.

The general idea is identifying the particular emotion and problem, and then practicing in a reasonably comfortable space with a similar low level problem to move just a little bit towards improving the situation in some way. Then, when the “real thing” shows up, you have more options, and can choose your instinctive response or your new skilled response, depending on which one is more useful.

Happiness seems like such an undefinable, inexplicable, unknown thing sometimes. We all know about the simple things that make all of us living things “feel good” that involve the body getting some sort of food, or water, or warmth which it needs to function well. But beyond that, why do some humans get all tingly when they hear someone whispering in their ear, and other humans don’t? And why is it so addictive for some people to gamble?

And why is life still worth living when there are so many depressing things out there?

Because life is, at it’s core, made to expand and grow. The algorithm of life is one for generating new life, and pretty much nothing else. Without that purpose in life, it would not continue to exist. And one way it does that is by having the super complex human brain reward itself for doing certain things.

What sort of things make YOU happy depend entirely on a complex combination of your genes and your environment, but the one thing that is always true, is that the things that make you happy, that aren’t actively harming anyone (non-consensually), are the things that the universe probably needs you to do more of.

Thinking, mostly. Everything thinks. Therefore it is. What is thinking? Absorbing information/energy, and processing it in some way.

Thinking is patterns.

And there are only a few basic building blocks that make up, or at least describe, all possible patterns in reality: empty, pregnant space, a point or location in that space, a movement or line between two points, and so on, with each next pattern being more changes/lines between a point or set of points in space.

And Pascal’s triangle tells us how many points and lines (vectors, changes, differences, etc.) there are for each dimension of thinking that we’re doing.

(Note that I initially talk about the 1, 3, 3, 1 level of Pascal’s traingle as the 3rd/objective dimension, when it is the 2D/shape dimension, but I correct myself pretty quickly.)

Speaking Up Workshop for Clarification and Communication
Saturday January 21, 10am-noonStockton Springs Town Office Community Room (lower level, rear entrance/parking lot)
217 Main St.

Children welcome when accompanied by an adult.
Free.

A fun and meaningful process for crafting the story of who you are and what you want. Aimed at artists, activists, and self explorers alike.

Using a philosophical understanding of the loopy pattern through which life naturally flows, this workshop will guide participants in identifying their most important stories about themselves, and then help them write, illustrate, sing, or simply tell those tales in the most inspiring way. Using this process, participants can learn how to be better communicators, and improve relationships, whether personal or professional.

meta

You count!

I am for you

I do not mean my body is for you,
because I cannot speak for her,
as my body speaks for herself,
sometimes clumsily
sometimes elegantly
sometimes weakly,
sometimes with great strength
and always most independently
and wordlessly.

- a home for myself, my honey, and CREATE Space - a community resource center with artists, teachers, and scientists in residence using creative and innovative solutions to helping everyone in the world get what they need to be more awesome!
- good quality raw food
- transportation from where I am to other interesting places! (I'm currently in Stockton Springs, Maine)
- non-rusty bicycle (an old mtn. bike for a 5'2" human)
- Help starting a global non-profit!
- A hug from DPM :-)